Preschoolers are curious children, easily distracted, keen on independence and still developing self-relations. Preschool actually helps your child learn about getting along with other children of their age and elders and also get to know about following rules.

Common preschool behavior concerns can include throwing tantrums, developing bad habits, lying to people and anxiety. They depend awfully a lot on their parents to guide them correctly through every problem that they encounter.

Preschoolers are almost fascinated by anything in their surroundings, so you can expect a lot of ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘why’ questions. You need to spend more time with them to satisfy their learning urges – for example, while walking on the street, they encounter a strange insect, so you also need to stop to explain to them what it is and how harmful it can be.

Preschoolers are a bit slow on the uptake as they still in the phase to understand the things happening around them. So, sometimes while you are talking to them, you might feel that they are ignoring or have blanked out but the truth is that they are still trying to understand what you said a minute ago.

Independence is important to them, especially for those who try to do everything by themselves. But your child depends a lot upon you to boost their confidence and build up their self-esteem. Attention, praise, active listening and providing them opportunities to practice the skills they have learnt are some methods that will help in this process.

As a preschooler, they are still getting better at self-regulation, which is great for getting along with kids at preschool or play group. But they still require your help with expressing strong feelings and emotions appropriately and managing behavior, especially in tough and challenging situations.

WHY PRESCHOOL IS GOOD?

Children, at this age, can benefit from going to preschool. Some kids may can take a while before they are accustomed to preschool or have fears in the first place, about going to preschool. But its too great an opportunity to pass, as preschool will allow your child to make friends and practice skills such as communicating and sharing. They start to learn to follow other people’s rules and getting along with them.

BEHAVIOUR CONCERNS IN PRESCHOOL YEARS

Anxiety

It is a normal part of your child’s development and preschoolers often fear of being lonely or being in the dark. If your child worries too much or shows signs of anxiety often, you can support them by acknowledging their fear and gradually encouraging to do things they are anxious about. Don’t forget to praise them after each trial. It’s a great way to rid them of their fear. 

Bullying

Bullying can be devastating for your child’s confidence and mental health, especially in their preschool years. If you child is being bullied in preschool, immediately seek support of the school staff and support your child with lots of love and compassion. Make known to them that you will take care of everything and nothing similar would happen to them in the future.

Fighting

Fights, confrontations and disagreements are very common among children. A few factors that affect fighting are – temperament, age, environment, overconfidence etc. Children learn what he sees. You can start by reducing fights at home in front of them and explaining to them the negative impact that fighting has.

Habits

Lots of children have habits that children posses include biting nails, digging their nose, not washing hands regularly or scratching their head. It may be so that you cannot stand to watch these but these are natural, you can just talk to them about this. As they grow older, they automatically learn and rectify their habits.

Lying

This is no big secret that all children of this age lie about something or the other. You may have noticed their lying but being unexperienced they are immediately caught. It is a part of their development process and you have to try the best you can to teach them values such as truth and honesty. Though it is okay to lie in some situations but never tell them that.

Shyness

Shy behavior is common among children of any age group. But preschoolers are still learning ways to make their thoughts known and how to express their feelings. its always beneficial for your child when you praise them and encourage them to interact with others, make eye contact and play with them as often as possible.

Tantrums

If your child has tantrums, its nothing to be mad about considering the fact that they are still learning to express their feelings. If you work on reducing their stress, connecting with their feelings and emotions and carefully spotting what triggers their tantrums. This will help you to monitor them leading to fewer tantrums in the future.